


Tank You

by Garce



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers Movie Night, Avengers Tower, Bucky Barnes Remembers, Bucky Barnes and the 21st Century, Christmas, Cuddling & Snuggling, Cute, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Movie Night, POV Bucky Barnes, POV Steve Rogers, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers and the 21st Century, Swearing, Teen Peter Parker, World War II, happiness, personal headcannon, steve rogers is tired, tony stark - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 12:47:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16954320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Garce/pseuds/Garce
Summary: In which Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes do not say thank you, instead they say Tank You.A whole lotta fluff and happiness





	Tank You

**Author's Note:**

> Mild swearing. Other than that this is purely fluff and happiness.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this. This is one of my personal head cannons and I thought it was really freaking cute.

“M’gonna  grab somethim to drink, you want anything?” Steve looked up whispering groggily to Bucky careful not to interrupt the movie everyone was watching.

 

“Water?” Bucky hummed glancing at Steve before returning his attention to whatever Christmas movie Tony had claimed they need to watch to be “educated and cultured people in the twenty-first century.”

 

Steve threw the blanket off of himself, sat up from where he was laying next to Bucky on the couch, and laid the blanket back over Bucky before walking into the kitchen in the Avengers common space. The feeling of the cool tile and growing distance from people made Steve feel less stuffed and confined, not that he wasn’t enjoying himself. But after taking part in a two hour press conference all Steve wanted to do was crawl into bed with Bucky and fall asleep.

 

Opening the fridge Steve took a second to enjoy his moment of solitude before grabbing two waters and gently closing the door to the fridge. He held one of the waters to the inside of his left wrist for a few seconds while he was walking to help himself relax before he got back to the living room.

 

Natasha and Clint were on the couch furthest to the right sitting and leaning on each other, Tony and Bruce sat on a mattress someone had put in the middle of the floor, Peter was at the tower for the weekend and was curled up on a chair with three blankets to the left of Tony and Bruce. Bucky was laying against the arm of the couch that sat behind everyone else stretching his legs down the length of the couch.

 

Steve walked over to the couch lifting up the blanket and snuggling himself into Bucky lifting the water he didn’t warm up with his wrist to Bucky while he laid his head against Bucky’s chest.

 

“M’tank you.” Bucky spoke his voice raspy and tired as he screwed the cap of taking a long gulp from the water.

 

Peter looked back at them giving them a confused look before deciding against saying anything returning his full attention to movie on the TV. Neither of Steve or Bucky had the energy to question what the kid was going to say for more than a half of a second. Steve instead leaned further back into Bucky as both of them half slept and half watched the movie. _Something about stealing Christmas Steve remembered. Honestly he just liked the dog._

 

Bucky slowly began carding his flesh hand through Steve’s hair, half out of affection and half out of the need to stay awake. Bucky felt Steve shift around on the couch trying to get comfortable. Taking notice of his discomfort Bucky stopped and rested his arm over the back of the couch instead.

 

“Don’t stop.” Steve slurred dragging the the _o_ sounds in his words as he pushed his head back against Bucky again, who immediately began running his fingers through Steve's hair again.

 

“M’ tank you.” Steve drawled dragging out the last word in his sentence. He didn’t care that he was acting like a damn house cat. _So what cats are fucking cool._

 

It took Steve a moment to realize that the TV had been paused and Peter was looking back at them again. Swinging his legs over the side of the chair to face them Peter looked at them confused.

 

“Umm are you guys saying tank you instead of thank you or…”Peter questioned with such a confused look on his face he might as well have been trying to solve one of those Rubik’s cubes with ten sides. 

 

“Thank God, you’re hearing it too. I thought I was going crazy.” Tony breathed out a sigh of relief as all the Avengers turned their attention to the two super soldiers cuddling on the couch. Steve finally opened his eyes to look at everyone staring at him and Bucky.

 

“Yes. Buck m’m tired you tell em.” Steve said leaning into Bucky’s touch more.

 

“It started as a joke at the war” Bucky began already smiling at one of his favorite stories he’d remembered since breaking free of Hydra.

  


⸻

 

_Bucky was anything but tired. He was too worried to sleep, too worried to really do anything honestly. He and the rest of the men had gotten back from Azzano less than five days ago. Steve was whisked away immediately to meet with Phillips and his men to talk about what was next for the group and what Steve saw in Azzano._

 

_Steve became busy for the next few days, spending all his time in meetings with the big brass. Bucky spent his time convincing himself that this was real and not another hallucination, he was not in Azzano, he was not on the table, he was on a U.S. base, and Steve was here with him. His Steve, the one who a year ago couldn’t run up more than two flights of stairs without an asthma attack, who fought everyone, including Bucky if he tried to help Steve clean up._

 

_Bucky was drinking a water standing next to some of the weapons that they had brought back with them from the Hydra facilities admiring them for their beauty and mechanics when he felt a hand clasp onto his shoulder. Shrinking back slightly Bucky turned around to find Steve looking at him. It was the first time Bucky had really had a chance to be with Steve in over a year. Sure he and Steve had been together since they have been reunited but it was the first time it really felt like he was with Steve again, at least with his Steve again._

 

_Bucky would never admit it out loud, but Steve was his person. His ma always told him he would find some that was “His Person”  and Bucky knew from the day they met that Steve was going to be his person for the rest of his life. He’d never tell anyone though, he always said it was for Stevie’s safety. He knew what they did to queers, he knew Brooklyn was one of the best places to be in that respect but even then, Bucky knew it would hurt less to never say anything to Steve rather than see people hurt Steve for the way that_ **_Bucky_** _felt. So, Bucky took dames on dates, kissed them when he dropped them off for the night, and promised himself, no matter what, once it was safe he would tell Stevie._

 

_He smiled back looking at his best friend playing off his initial fear of the touch. Steve didn’t pull away and Bucky thanked God that he was still the same Steve on the inside. He was still his Steve...mostly. He just looked different, really different._

 

_“What’s goin on punk. You’ve been here two weeks an ya haven’t threaten’d ta punch me me yet. You sick Stevie.” Bucky teased pushing his shoulder into Steve’s. Bucky could have sworn that his smile grew every second he saw Steve’s eyes fill with light and smile back._

 

_“Don’t ya dare think I’d forgot to fight my best guy. I’ve been waiting for a fair fight, wouldn’t want everyone to see ya get your ass kicked now would we jerk,” Steve chided back, smile growing wider every second._

 

_Bucky just smiled back at Steve and punched him in the arm, he didn’t need words they’d had this conversation a million times. They liked it better when they didn’t have to finish the conversation. It felt closer, It felt like for that moment they were closer than they could be. They fell into silence. Something the two did seldom. So they stood there staring at a tank, on a U.S. army base in France with a million things to say but nowhere to even start._

 

_All Bucky could think about was the stories about what Steve did before he went to Azzano. How he marched into Phillips office demanding to know about the rescue plan, how he demanded to know about Bucky. Bucky knew better though, he talked himself down from the idea that Steve did it because it was Bucky, told himself Steve did it for all the other men and that Bucky being there was a bonus._

 

_“Hey Steve—_ ~~_You’re it for me. I love ya Stevie._ ~~ **** _Back in Azzano, they—they_ _did some things—um to me—” Bucky began to panic. Where the hell was he going with this. He can’t make this sad. Steve was so happy, I gotta make him happy again. Fuck make a joke Barnes._

 

_“I-I just wanted to say for getting me out of there uh” Bucky got it and it’s so fucking funny._

 

_“Tank you” Bucky smiled looking at the tanks lined up in front of the two of them. He smiled like he made the funniest joke ever._

 

_Steve turned his head to look at Bucky and laughed like he was told the funniest joke ever. Steve grabbed his own chest and released a roaring full belly laugh, Bucky swore he would give his soul if it meant he could see Steve that happy for the rest of both of their lives._

 

_“Buck t-that’s uh—that’s the best thing I’ve heard in over a year,” Steve said still recovering from laughing the dumbest pun Bucky has ever made in his entire life._

 

_The two kept the joke going. Only they used it, no one questioned why they said tank you. It was the thing that made Bucky happiest to hear, to know that it still made Steve happy. The used it until their lines of life ended, Bucky fell and Steve went into the ocean both of them taking “Tank you” with them._

 

_⸻_

 

“So it was just a really bad pun that turned into a joke?” Peter confirmed already swinging his legs back into the chair facing the TV in the room again.

 

“That’s pretty cute.” he finished holding up the remote looking around to confirm that everyone else was ready for him to play the movie again.

 

“We’re really fucking cute.” Steve smiled mumbling into Bucky’s chest as the movie started again.


End file.
